Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Star Wars News: Darth Vader & Clone Wars Character in Rogue One

You hear that sound? That was EW dropping an internet bomb
on the Star Wars community today. Entertainment
Weekly released the focus of their Friday issue, and it’s all about Star
Wars Rogue One. The issue, and the story on their website, gives breakdowns of
all the new characters and also confirms a badly kept secret: Darth Vader’s
return to the big screen. Many Star Wars fans have known Vader is going to be
in the movie for weeks now from leaks and just common sense. A wider audience
now has the knowledge. The masses won’t recognize the dark lord’s return until
the next trailer drops (sorry Harry Potter fans there is only one true dark
lord).

The main question I have is the timing for this EW article.
Is this Disney and Lucasfilm doing damage control from the rash of stories about
the movie being in trouble? It might be, because this is the type of article that
should come out during or right before Star Wars celebration next month. I
would almost expect the new trailer to drop tomorrow or sometime soon with this
much information coming out. I still think it will probably be next month for a
new trailer. The timing for this news feels more like damage control instead of
purely getting people excited for the film.

I still think the film is going to be good regardless. I
didn’t think the reshoots were a big story when it dropped, and I don’t think
they are now. I think they want to change some things in the film and make it
better, but I don’t think it is anything to worry about. I’m curious of the
timing confirming Darth Vader’s appearance without visuals to back it up. The
cover of the magazine confirms he is coming back, but we don’t have a single
image from the story today of the Sith Lord. EW is dropping images tomorrow, so
maybe we will see him then, but I think the best time to reveal his presence
would be in a trailer.

Again the masses aren’t going to realize Darth Vader is in a
movie until they see a trailer. Star Wars fans knew he was going to be in it,
and now more main stream movie fans know. The news today seemed to be more
about misdirection. Those reshoots are nothing to worry about, look at all this
cool information. We got confirmation of Darth Vader for the masses, and for
hardcore Star Wars fans a nugget about Forrest Whitaker’s character Saw
Gerrera.

Saw Gerrera has made an appearance in Star Wars cannon
before. On season five in Clone Wars he was a leader of a Rebel band on the
planet Onderon, not to be confused with Alderaan. He was a hot head and was
mistrustful of the Jedi if I am remembering the story arc correctly. These particular
episodes of Clone Wars were really well done, and if you haven’t watched the
show check out these episodes on Netflix.

I’m excited they are incorporating an animated character
into a live action role. It could pave the way for other characters who have
only been in books or the animated show to migrate over to live action. I don’t
think it will be a regular occurrence, but the Star Wars films give more opportunities
for characters already established to have a bigger role. I look forward to
seeing what Whitaker does with the character and how he plays a part in
capturing the Death Star plans.

More news about Rogue One or anything related to Star Wars
gets me excited. This is my most anticipated movie of the year, and while I
think this article is damage control, I’m still not worried. I think Lucasfilm
felt they needed to get out in front of the negative reshoot buzz with a story like
this. I don’t think they are worried about the movie being bad, but worried
about how the negative press would affect the film. Hopefully this is the case,
and the movie isn’t a jumbled mess. Even if it is at the moment, I think the
team assembled can still make it a good film.